Return to the Park
by Pabulous
Summary: Rin thinks back to when he and Shiemi were at the amusement park as part of their training, and decides to ask Shiemi to go back with him. Rin/Shiemi


"Next time I want to come here to play, not on a mission!" Shieme declared. She and Rin had been wandering the amusement park in search of a ghost, and it clear that she was dreaming about her missed opportunities to visit a park like this as a child. Rin saw her expression of longing as she looked at one of the game stands, and he felt a sense of empathy. He had never been to a park like this either. As a matter of fact, he had also missed out on quite a few opportunities as a kid. He never really had friends prior to joining True Cross Academy, and many childhood activities were done in groups.

"Th-then next time I'll come and hang out with you," he said nonchalantly.

"Yeah!" Shiemi's face lit up at his proposal, and her level of excitement made his face flush. Never in his wildest dreams would he have expected her to be so thrilled about spending time with him. After all, they were walking through the park on a mission and it felt like a date. If they actually came to have fun, then that would mean…

Rin shook his head. There was no way that Shiemi would draw the same conclusion. It was ridiculous, but he couldn't help but feel elated anyway.

"S-seriously? Y-y-ou sure?" He cursed himself mentally for stuttering over such a simple set of words, but Shiemi took no notice, much to his relief.

"Yep! Let's go for sure!"

ooooo

After a set of training exercises from Yukio, the class of ex-wires were given some time off from their responsibilities. The weather was warm, and Rin decided that this vacation was the perfect time to finally take Shiemi back to the amusement park.

Rin had gone over the scenario a thousand times in his mind. He would be talking with Shiemi and casually slip the idea of going to the park into the conversation. Shiemi would, of course, be delighted to go with him, and the two of them would plan to meet that Saturday afternoon to enjoy the park together. It would be perfect as long as the turn of events would occur just as they did in his head.

It was during one of Shiemi's visits to the Okumura dorm room that Rin finally had the chance to speak with her. She was dropping off some supplies that Yukio had ordered, and she decided to sit down after Rin convinced her to stay for tea before heading back home.

After exhausting through the mundane topics of relief for the temporary halt of training sessions and how the weather was finally warming up (he had mentally kicked himself for talking about the weather, of all things) Rin swallowed and realized that he had to speed things up. He noticed that her teacup was slowly emptying, and hastily changed the topic of conversation before she had the chance to leave.

"So I was going to go to the amusement park where we had that assignment a while back. I'm going on Saturday-"

"Can I come too?" There was a gleam in her eyes as she said this, and it startled Rin. He wasn't expecting Shiemi to be this enthusiastic, and he certainly hadn't anticipated that she would beat him to the invitation.

"Y-yeah, sure," he stuttered in response. He kicked himself internally as he said this, wishing he had been more casual with his reply. Didn't girls prefer the cool type? His brother always acted so calm and collected, and he had girls falling for him all the time at school.

"Oh! I don't mean to impose!" Shiemi continued, snapping Rin out of his thoughts. "It's just that I've been wanting to go back, and since you were already going, I thought…" She fiddled nervously with her thumbs as she trailed off partway through her sentence, unsure of how to politely make her request.

"It's fine. I was going to ask you anyway."

The nervous expression on her face instantly turned into one of delight, and it made Rin's heart skip a beat knowing that he was currently responsible for her happiness.

"I'll meet you outside the shop at twelve… I'll head over there with you." It amazed Rin that he was capable of producing complete sentences with all of the knots in his stomach, but he didn't question it. All he knew was that he was going on a sort-of-hopeful date with Shiemi, and she was actually excited about it.


End file.
